Woman, 105, Credits No Sex for Long Life.

In 2000 and 2004, the left howled accusations of voter fraud. Now we are seeing allegations of orchestrated voter registration fraud conducted by ACORN throughout the battleground states. It's not surprising that ACORN has close ties to Barack Obama. For some reason, I am not hearing the howls of voter fraud from the left right now.

As pointed out by the NRO's Jay Nordlinger:

Barack Obama is a miraculous politician — maybe the luckiest one in the world. I think of this huge housing crisis. It should have come down badly on Obama’s head — damaged him severely. The Democrats’ policies, particularly on “fair lending,” have a lot to do with this mess. Obama supported those policies foursquare. And it gets worse for him — or should get worse.

The poster children for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson. They got inconceivably rich in their jobs. As bad luck would have it, from the Obama point of view — or as bad luck ought to have it — these men are friends, advisers, and donors to Obama. This should have been a nightmare for him, politically.

Instead, it’s Christmas morning — a real boon. This is amazing. Sure, the Republicans ran a couple of ads, pointing out the Obama connection to Raines and Johnson. But the Republicans were immediately denounced as racists, because guess what? One of those men isn’t white.

What a strange world, and resoundingly to Obama’s advantage.

hollie_is_right

mountainpilot

The Free Market.

John McCain's proposal to fix the mortgage crisis, from last night:

You know that home values of retirees continues to decline and people are no longer able to afford their mortgage payments. As president of the United States, Alan, I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes -- at the diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those -- be able to make those payments and stay in their homes.

Another version of the "Kreepy Kidz 4 ObamaMessiah" song.

McCain clearly made a mistake referring to Obama as "That One." Oh John... Don't you know, Barack Obama is, "The One!"

Ahhh... memories of when the McCain campaign was effective...

From the National Review's Jonah Goldberg:

Oh No, It's Ending:

I was hoping it would go on forever. With lots of charts. And maybe a long summing-up speech by Tom Brokaw.

McCain lost this debate.

Yes Obama played fast and loose with the facts... Does anyone (yes, you too my liberal friends) really believe that Obama is going to cut taxes and cut government spending???

John McCain is either unwilling or unable to articulate a cogent argument which challenges Obama's fairy tale promises... Obama's going to cut taxes AND give us all universal health care??? Right after he replaces gas-burning cars with free unicorns...

I kept waiting for John McCain to call him on this, and he never did. The best chance McCain had was when Barack Obama said that healthcare should be a right. Yes... everyone loves good healthcare, but to articulate healthcare as a government right is fundamental contrary to the free-market system that has made America the country that it is. While there are certainly problems with our healthcare system, but the USA has the most advanced medical care in the world. While Michael Moore loves to repeat the big lie that Cuba has better healthcare, as well as Europe, the truth is that those people who can afford it, flee their own country's healthcare system to get American doctors.

Even when we acknowledge those problems with healthcare as well as the housing crisis, and other economic conditions, McCain needed to tell America how the federal government causes more problems than it creates. Yes, Obama scored some big points saying that Healthcare should be a federal government entitlement/right, but it's an unrealistic fantasy which will make the problem worse. This is the exact failed ideology of LBJ's War on Poverty; i.e. that big government can fix all of these problems. Look at the history of government entitlement programs which have intended to institute equality of result. When the federal government takes control of systems which are best left to the free-market or state/local governments, they simply fail. Look how good the federal government has done with housing and the mortgage crisis! Now we want them taking more control of our healthcare?!?!? Huge Federal Bureaucracies... that'll fix what ails you... Instead of getting a referal from your doctor to see a specialist, now you'll need to get it from a government bureaucrat... *sigh*

This was supposed to be a town-hall debate. It was neither a town hall nor a debate.

Town Halls allow citizens to throw out quirky questions that are outside the same questions the media asks over and over again. However, by Brokaw selecting the questions, it just became the same kind of questions. Ok, the last question was different, but in a real town hall, there is real interaction between the candidates and the attendees. In this format, the questioner got to ask the question for 12 seconds, and we never heard from them again.

To make matters worse, this was no debate. No follow-up questions??? WTF!!! Both candidates just spat out the same talking points which we've heard over and over again. A good follow-up forces that candidate to abandon the talking point and actually explain themselves.

Tonight's loser: Tom Brokaw.

9:00 - Watching CNN and the absolutely evil "Richter" scale of approval/unapproval scale. I found it funny that it dropped down during Tom Brokaw's introduction and the first question.

9:04 - Obama just said that he'd fire the AIG executives who went on high-priced junkets. Sounds great... can we fire the Congressmen and Senators who also go on high-priced junkets???

9:13 - McCain just attacked Obama and the Senate Democrats for meddling in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, thus helping to run it into the ground. Then he says the government needs to actually purchase commercial paper and bad mortgages. Now Obama attacks McCain for being a de-regulator... Ugh... No matter who wins, both of these guys thinks that more government will fix this problem. It's times like this I miss Ron Paul... If just one of these guys actually talked about personal responsibility and defended the free-market system, they'd skyrocket in the polls.

9:20 - Obama: "I understand your frustration and your cynicism." He just channeled Bill Clinton's "I feel your pain." He then goes on to say he will cut government spending... He may be shameless... but he's good... Does anyone really believe that Obama is going to cut government spending?

I think the answer to the question, "How can we trust either party, when you caused this economic mess?" was answered by both Obama and McCain... The answer is... you can't.

How does McCain attack Obama on Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae without mentioning that Jim Johnson is still on Obama's campaign staff???

9:28 - Obama is going to eliminate earmarks? You think he'll start with the earmark he gave to the hospital which employs his wife?

9:34 - Obama's solution to the economy and energy: Don't go shopping, Use less energy, Make sacrifices and Enlarge the Peace Corp!?!?! Did I just warp back to 1976??? Is President Carter Obama going to tell us to wear a sweater to keep warn and that the U.S. is going through a malaise???

9:43 - Hey let's tax rich individuals and big companies. Ummm... can someone point out that they are the ones who employ most Americans???

9:46 - McCain says that Nuclear power is the cleanest source of power? Actually both candidates support Nuclear power as being necessary. So much for that 1976 time warp.

9:49 - Brokaw asks if we should create a "Manhattan Project" for energy? Could he have thought of a more silly analogy?

9:55 - Obama feels that health care costs will be lowered, if the federal government puts our medical records in a centralized database? No privacy concerns there!

10:00 - Delaware has laws favorable for banks??? If only there were a Senator in Delaware who would fight against those laws...

10:01 - Are we finished with the economic questions and now on foreign policy? McCain may finally give some lucid answers...

10:07 - Obama: "If we had the ability to stop the Holocaust..." If??? Hmmm... I wonder if the refugees on the "St. Louis" felt better knowing FDR apparently didn't have the ability to save them???

10:20 - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

10:25 - Brokaw: "We're winding down." When did we ever wind UP??

10:29 - McCain used the "League of Democracies" line again like in the first debate. Did his debate prep team tell him that was a good line? Will Aquaman be a member of this League?

10:35 - Best Line of the night. "That concludes tonight's debate."

This is the latest video gone viral. It sure made me laugh.

Actually, I thought both Biden and Palin gave great performances, considering that both candidates had very goals in mind. Palin's job was to come out and look competent on the issues and knock down the image created by several of her poor answers to Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson. Remember, unlike Biden's numerous gaffes, when Palin made a mistake, CBSMSNBCCNNNBCABC would replay it over and over again. (i.e. "Macaca" & "Dean's Scream") In other words, she could not make a blunder.

On the other hand, Biden's biggest challenge was to not look like an arrogant snob. While, the conventional wisdom is that he's experienced and knowledgeable, he can also come off like a jerk. Joe Biden could simply not afford to be this guy again.

Both candidates met their goals. As for Biden, absent his numerous factual gaffes, (Dude... Please re-read Article I of the U.S. Constitution) he actually looked more presidential than Barack Obama. In many respects, he reminded me of Lloyd Bentsen, who not only looked more presidential than Dan Quayle, but also more qualified than Michael Dukakis. Biden also is the kind of candidate who lists off facts like a laundry list. ("In my 36 years in the senate, I have voted 658 times to..." "My tax plan will raise $382,000,000,000,000 in revenue, $35,000,000,000 in healthcare, $12,000,000 for middle class families, $809,000,000,000,000,000 for my Amtrak train car back to Delaware... etc... etc...) Frankly, whenever he read off these laundry lists, I thought 2 things. (1. American's eyes are all glazing over whenever he spouts off giant numbers like this & 2. There are several dozen fact-checkers in a Republican war-room researching each incorrect fact.) While, Biden appears confident when citing these facts, he is always confident when he is making shit up (i.e. not knowing who was president in 1929, his plagiarism problem, his lies about his academic record, etc...

As for Palin, certainly she relied less on policy wonk language than Joe Biden. Also, on many occasions, it was obvious she was struggling to spout out a pre-prepared "zinger", which made her look clumsy and awkward at times. I am also baffled that both McCain and Palin refuse to call out the fact that it was the Democrats who received massive donations from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while blocking attempts to put oversight in place. Also, how can you let Biden get away with the fact that led the charge to change the Bankruptcy code, which makes it more difficult to Americans to discharge their debt? Nevertheless, she stuck to her game plan of rejecting Washingtonian speak, repeating the themes of the McCain/Palin ticket and trying to act like a "regular" American. In fact, in many cases, she articulated the McCain policies on energy, taxes and free-enterprise better than McCain did. As for the "folksy" lines and trying to come off as a regular American, that is a double-edged sword. Yes, Americans often complain how they hate politicians who are entrenched in the beltway and have lost touch with regular America, but on the other hand, they also tend to keep re-electing those kinds of people. Hence, if she comes across as "too regular", she will get stuck with the "unqualified" label.

Overall, I think the debate was closer to a push than most partisan pundits are saying. Since, Palin had the bigger challenge, I think she gained the most from it. Also, the past two weeks have been terrible for McCain as he has plummeted in the polls. Perhaps, this debate could be the point where the descent reached rock bottom, and I would not be surprised if the polls begin to sway over to McCain in the next several days.

In any event, we shall see.

Last night I had a meeting at the NYC Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, so I was unable to watch the debate from home or liveblog it. Fortunately, the Center did broadcast the debate from their large auditorium, selling booze and pizza... (Thank God for the booze!)

There were about 150 or so people watching on a large screen TV. And just to give you an idea of the political makeup of the GLBT center, earlier that day, they had a forum for the various political parties to speak to the community. The attendees were:

Tobias Wolff, Chair of Barack Obama's Democratic National LGBT Policy Committee, representing Barack Obama/Joe Biden

Dan Schaffer, Former State Committee Member of the Green Party, representing Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente

Jinnette Caceres, NYC Branch Organizer and Member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, representing Gloria La Riva/Eugene Puryear

Dear Leader sayz I can Haz Fr33 Kool-Aid!!!

If you would have adopted some of the arguments Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) had made on the floor of the Senate last night, you would not be plummeting in the polls.

Here, DeMint persuasively and effectively both defends the free market and shows how government meddling in our free market only makes things worse. I would almost say that his remarks were "Reagan-esque."

My friend jwirenius has written a few posts regarding the recent economic and mortgage mess. I have argued that it was government regulation which caused this mess. Meanwhile, like most on the left, he has argued in favor of more government regulation and attacked those who support deregulation.

Some of those on the political Right are casting about for "market friendly" explanations of our Current Kerfuffle, because, of course, we know that the Giant Invisible Hand can never be wrong. The first such explanation, courtesy of alanesq...

Tomorrow's VP Debate Moderator, Gwen Ifill, has a new book coming out on January 20, 2009 (inauguration day), The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. Amazon.com's description of the book.

In THE BREAKTHROUGH, veteran journalist Gwen Ifill surveys the American political landscape, shedding new light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential campaign and introducing the emerging young African American politicians forging a bold new path to political power.